Page 45 of Her Player

Because Brynn was right.

I neglected myself for too long.

And not just the little things. Not the sleep and the meals and the haircuts I kept rescheduling and the friends I’d let drift away. She’d been right about the bigger thing too, the part I’d cut her off before she could finish saying. Because cutting people off before they finished saying things was the whole damn move with me. Always had been.

I’d been afraid since Ryan died.

Fourteen years of telling myself I was running a hockey franchise when really, I’d just been running.

Goddamn it, my daughter.

I’d have to deal with that later. Some other day. Not tonight.

Tonight there was a six-foot-seven mountain of a man pretending to do pull-ups for me, and I had three years of catching the fuck up to do.

“I could put on a little show,” Rhett said as he swiveled his hips while wiping off the sweat from his chest. “You know, if that suits your fancy.”

I giggled and shook my head. “You’re something else, you know that?”

He winked. “Anything for you, Victoria.”

I wrapped the towel around his waist and shimmied against it, and I let out a playful whistle. He grinned as he slowly rolled his hips, turning back around to face me as those luscious blue eyes connected with mine. He threaded the towel between his legs, pumping his hips in a lewd manner that made my thighs burn with a need for his attention.

I kept my cool, though.

“I think you can do better than that, sweet boy,” I said with a grin.

I swear, something akin to a low growl bubbled up his throat before he spoke. “As you wish, Miss C.”

I whipped the towel around in the air before tossing it back at him. I giggled when it slapped against his chest, and I picked up the sweaty piece of fabric before dropping it to the floor at my feet. Rhett dropped to his knees, crawling toward me before he picked up the fucking towel between his teeth and peered up at me.

He prowled toward me, his hands bracing themselves on either side of the bench where I sat as he perched on his knees. I snatched the towel out from between his teeth, but he quickly took it back from me.

He wrapped it around my waist and pulled me to the edge of the bench.

“Anything else, Miss C?” he asked.

The tone of his voice rattled my ribcage. When he dropped his voice like that, just for my ears, it sent goosebumps prickling on either side of my spine. My gut clenched. My pussy pulsed. There was something mesmerizing about this young man. Even perched on his knees, we were still eye level, despite the height I carried as a woman.

And the longer he stared me down, the more I felt my defenses dropping.

“Yes, actually,” I said as I gripped his chin and slowly pulled his face to mine. I let my mouth flutter against his before I dropped my voice to a whisper. “I could use a foot massage after being in these heels all day.”

His eyes practically lit up as he leaned forward long enough to capture my lips. The kiss was chaste, but surprising enough that I gasped against the claim. His lips slid along my jaw, rushing down my pulse point in featherlike movements that pulled the softest groan from up my throat.

I leaned my head back against the mirrored wall as I felt him slipping off my heels.

“I don’t know how you women walk in these damned things anyway,” he said as his hands picked up my right foot.

“Pain is beau—ooooh, Rhett.”

He chuckled as his thumbs kneaded into the aching arches of my foot. “That’s a good girl. Sit back and relax.”

I tensed my muscles to hold back my shiver at that one. Good girl. I’d never been called that before.

I kind of liked it.

“There we go,” he said softly as my foot relaxed in his grasp, “let me take care of this. Just relax, Victoria.”